Orlando police horse Noble says 'neigh' to retirement

Noble with owner Carole Fredricks. (Tom Benitez, Orlando Sentinel )

March 24, 2013|By Eloísa Ruano González, Orlando Sentinel

Retirement can be a challenge for people used to a strict work schedule. Apparently it's no different for Noble, a horse whose law-enforcement days with the Orlando Police Department ended in December.

Noble saw plenty of action during his nine-year career — he patrolled last year's NBA All-Star Game at the Amway Center and Republican National Convention in Tampa as well as Super Bowl XXXIX in Jacksonville in 2005. He went out to Mississippi for the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and also took part through the years in numerous searches, including for 2-year-old Caylee Anthony, said Noble's original owner, Carole Fredricks.

But the 17-year-old has packed on weight and struggled to get used to a slower pace since he reunited with his owner and moved back home to rural Eustis for his retirement.

"It's like somebody turned off the lights," said Fredricks, comparing Noble's adjustment to retirement to that of a human suddenly without a workday routine and a lot of exercise. "I can't possibly keep him busy as he was."

Fredricks, 75, said the horse she affectionately calls Patchy — the name she gave him when she brought him home as a year-old colt — had sore hooves from walking on concrete for all those years with OPD and needed to be retired.

Now, the most excitement Noble encounters is breaking into Fredricks' garden to steal carrots.

"He robbed my garden of every carrot," she said. "He picked the lock and walked right in there."

The horse bides his time grazing on the 20-acre property or in his stable, seemingly restless for action. When he first returned home, Noble heard a firetruck run by and bolted out of his stable. He misses the action, explained Fredricks, who's growing out Noble's red mane after nearly a decade with a buzz cut.

Michelle Pearson, a retired Orlando police officer, said Noble was one of the most fearless horses she worked with while on the agency's Mounted Patrol Unit. Although she wasn't his regular rider, they worked together many times, controlling downtown's streets. While on one of their patrols, a fight broke out on Church Street, and the horse "charged in without hesitation" to split up two people, said Pearson, who now runs the Mounted Police Training Academy in Clermont.

"As the bars were closing on the weekends and the people started to pour out onto the streets," she said, "Noble perked up and started getting ready for the end of the shift.

"He knew his job and loved it," she added.

He took his lumps, too. In 2009, Noble was elbowed in the face by an irate man outside an Orlando nightclub. The man, who shoved another police horse, was arrested on two counts of battery on a law-enforcement officer.

Now that Noble is off the beat, he's not as lively. And horses are high-energy animals who, like humans, can deteriorate without much activity.

"A lot of horses crave a having a purpose and something to do," she said.

Noble has packed on the weight in part because he doesn't exercise as much as he used to on the patrol, said Fredricks, who has a bad hip and only can take him on strolls. She said she's looking for an experienced rider to help out on a regular basis.

"He just spends hours by himself," Fredricks said, adding she no longer has other horses to keep him company.

Noble, who was the lead horse in the herd, likely misses the interaction with other police horses and the hundreds of people he encountered each night on duty, too, said Orlando police Officer Mike Garcia, who rode and cared for him during the first five years of the horse's career. He often visited schools to show off what police horses can do.

"I think he would miss the energy from that," he said.

As for the weight, the horse has always had an affinity for eating and looked to people for treats, which earned him nicknames like "Food Hound" and "Fatty-Fat" at the Police Department's stable. Garcia said the horse once stole his sandwich after he walked away from it to talk with someone. Noble did little to hide the evidence — Garcia found mayonnaise smeared around the horse's mouth.

Still, he said, the countryside is a great place for Noble to retire — for starters, the soft sand is easier on his hooves than concrete. Garcia said the horse got used to a fixed routine, as many animals do, and it'll take time before he can get used to a slower lifestyle.